Fir and other Trees of Oregon

Pleasant Valley, Multnomah Co., Oregon,
April 12, 1878.

To the Editor of the Gazette

Nothing seems so wonderful to newcomers
here as the giant towering and evergreen fir trees of
Oregon. Never before had they looked upon such tall,
gigantic trees, some being 200 and 300 feet high. It is a
saying that a newcomer has to look up twice before he can
see the tops of them. They grow very upright and very thick,
making a dense, gloomy forest, almost shutting out all
sunshine from the ground, gloomy during the brightest days.
How lonely one feels in wandering through such a forest
where one vast solitude reigns in primeval grandeur! The
trees stand so close that a team and wagon could not find
space or room sufficient for traveling. Making roads cost
much labor and time in such dense woods. The firs grow very
erect, straight as the hands of nature could plant them.
Their roots spread out, but have a very shallow hold of the
ground, being near the surface. Standing so perpendicularly
like monuments, they rest all their immense weight on their
bases on the solid earth, and hence there is but little
strain or purchase on the rots, like there ever is on the
roots of crooked or leaning trees. Where firs have been
blown down a person can see how near the surface and how
widely extended their roots and what a shallow depth of
earth was torn up with them, like a short section or cut of
a great log. There are not many limbs near the earth, as it
is a law of nature that all kinds of timber growing close
together denude themselves of their lower limbs, and grow
tall as if ambitious to climb, and the firs outclimb them
all. It is very seldom that we see any crooks, ugly knots or
hollows in the firs; nothing to mar their towering
symmetrical beauty. Some have short stubs or remains of old
limbs on the main trunks, but they do not spoil much the
value of the trees for making good lumber. But generally
their trunks are limbless, tapering but little, so that
often a woodman can cut ten or a dozen rail cuts or sawlogs
from a single tree, but perhaps on an average he could cut
about seven or eight cuts per tree. The lowest limbs of the
firs are the longest, the limbs becoming shorter higher up,
till the tops become cone-shaped or pointed. So close and so
many are the limbs, like so many roofs rising one above
another; that they keep off quite heavy rains, so the
newly-arrived emigrants can find a temporary shelter under
such an ample canopy instead of pitching their tents. But
the long continuous rains penetrate and soak through this
great awning of nature, often the covert of animals. Those
tall trees bend gracefully before the winds, that rustling
among their branches, sound a little like the falling of
rain. I think that such tall and shallow rooted trees could
not long withstand the winds and storms of Iowa. Here there
are no tornadoes to destroy the magnificent forests. But
fire sometimes proves destructive to vast bodies of timber,
burning the tops of trees or the limbs, the flames leaping
from three to tree, spreading before the breezes, so that
large districts are burned over and millions of stately
trees destroyed. The trees being resinous, burn easily. It
is the opinion of some that if there were severe droughts
here, and the sunshine very warm, like the climate of
California, and if it were as windy here as in Iowa, that
wild, destructive flames would sweep over all the timbered
regions of Oregon, destroying these mighty forests. The
burnt districts look desolate and uninviting, covered with
black logs, standing trees and stumps, charred by the fire.
Yet they are more easily settled and brought into
cultivation than are the green woods. It is a terrible task
the work of years, to open a farm in such dense and heavy
forests. The emigrant need not hope to be able to clear off
a good farm merely by the use of the axe, chopping down and
chopping up the trees like the emigrant farmers of other
states did in opening up their farms. Here it would be the
work of a lifetime to clear off a farm in this way. The
farmer uses a long augur instead of the axe, and bores two
holes into the tree that he wishes to destroy, the holes
opening into each other, and then applies fire, so that the
resinous firs gradually burn down, falling with thundering
crashes. In the same way fire is applied to the fallen
trees, burning them into parts, so that the charred remains
of the logs are rolled together and burned. Thus acre after
acre is brought into cultivation. Where the small firs and
other small trees stand very densely thick, people slash or
cut them with axes till they cover the ground with one
immense brush heap. The slashing being done, the cut bushes
are left to dry or season till July or August, when fire is
applied to them, when they burn off like prairie grass. This
is a much better and quicker way of clearing off those
almost impenetrable thickets than the slow process of
grubbing or digging them out of the ground. Chinese laborers
are often employed in clearing lands as they work much
cheaper than white men. I fancy that some of the readers of
the Gazette would like to look upon the big trees of Oregon.
When I was here in 1873 I helped to measure two monarch
firs; one measured 21 and the other 24 feet in
circumference, being respectively seven and eight feet in
diameter. Of course, there are larger trees here than any I
have yet seen.

It seems wrong to destroy by fire so many
millions of fine fir trees, which if sawed into lumber would
amply supply the demand for lumber in states where timber is
scarce and lumber an object. Unless the Northern Pacific
railroad or some other railroad is built to connect Oregon
with the states and territories east of the mountains, we
can have no market east for the immense lumber interests of
Oregon. If we had such a road east, thousands of sawmills
would soon be in operation sawing up the fine firs, pines,
etc., of Oregon to supply the great and increasing demand
for lumber in the far off east. Lumbering would thus soon
become a vast lucrative business, benefitting millions of
people. Considerable of lumber is shipped from Portland and
other points on ships to distant parts, for shipbuilding and
other purposes. Here, where lumber is in good and so
abundant, the building of houses and barns is not very
expensive. The sawmills at Portland, Oregon City, and other
towns, do an immense business in sawing and selling lumber.

Nearly all the trees of this Northwest
Coast are different from the trees of Iowa and Illinois; the
firs being the most numerous. There are not many pines in
this part of Oregon, but here are many stately cedars, some
several feet in diameter, large enough for good sawlogs,
making super excellent lumber. The oaks, ash and maples here
are different from trees of that name in Iowa. Besides those
species, there are but few deciduous trees, that is, trees
that shed their leaves every autumn. So that the woods are
evergreen, and hence the verdure is ever blooming. In
clearing land here one feels reluctant to cut down the young
and beautiful firs and cedars that would be so highly valued
as ornamental trees in Iowa. There are the yew tree, laurel,
chittim, alder, bearberry, willows of several kinds,
dogwood, and some species that I know not much about,
besides shrubs such as filbert or hazel, elder bush, wild
currant, wild gooseberry, salalberry, salmonberry,
huckleberry, etc., etc. Here art the "continuous woods"
spoken of by the poet so long ago.

The scenery here is on a scale of
grandeur commensurate with the mighty forests, giant
mountains and rivers of Oregon.